Shinigami's Gift in Disguise: A New Chance
by Elizabeth0058
Summary: Minato just doesn't have the best of luck, and instead of ending up as Shinigami's soul stuck in limbo, he is thrown into the underworld alive, kicking, confused, and stuck as a child again.Definitely not one of his best days, but will he figure out what happened or how to go home, if ever?And in this world of gods, his only campanion is a demon he himself sealed into his own gut.
1. Chapter 1: What the Heck is Going On?

**This is only a test story as of now. I just want to see how people will react to it. If I get enough positive reaction I will continue after I finish Goku's Sister. (If it becomes a full-blown story I will delete this note. Maybe, if I remember.)**

Chapter One:

What the Heck is Going On?

Minato groaned, becoming aware of something cold stinging his right cheek resting on the ground as he lay splayed out on his stomach. A slight chill permeated the air around him, accompanied with an underlying heat that made the blonde break out in a cold sweat. Slowly, he painfully cracked a startling blue eye open, and jerked into alertness at the grinning skull in front of him, and uncharacteristically scrambled back into something hard and recognized the thing he ran into to be a rock. He blinked; breathing in the dank air, finally registering the tortured screams that reached his ears, and flinched before taking in his surroundings.

A black wall surrounded an onyx castle and the courtyard garden Minato was in. There were mushrooms and luminous plants that grew without sunlight, and cast a strange, eerie light to the cave. Grotesque statues of people and creatures Minato did not have a name for littered the grounds, surrounded by dazzling jewels that gave the cave some color. A small orchard of pomegranate trees was in the center, the orange buds and flowers on the tree standing out in stark relief in the darkness.

Then the blonde noticed the guards standing on either side of the bronze gates, and a sudden spike of fear turned his stomach. The skeletons' empty eye sockets gazed blankly ahead as the duo stood statue still at attention in tattered clothes, each holding some form of weaponry. Instinctively, Minato settled into a crouch and repressed his chakra while the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. His hand crept towards his kunai pouch on his waist.

Movement between the two columns near the castle's entrance made Minato snap into full shinobi mode, a kunai finding its way into his hand. Absently, he noted that the weapon felt larger, heavier even, in is hand than he was accustomed to, but pushed the thought away. He was in unknown territory with possible threats everywhere, and that was the reason why when the figure in the doorway disappeared and reappeared only a few feet in front of him, he jumped back with startled blue eyes wide and let the knife fly. Unfortunately, the blonde forgot about the stone behind him and promptly clipped the rock with a foot right as the kunai left his hand, making it fly horribly off course and him to tumble unceremoniously to the ground. He sprang back to his feet, ignoring his new stinging scrapes.

The man in front of the blonde was certainly imposing. His black eyes were lit with an inner, cold fire in his thin, porcelain white face framed by the darkest of dark black hair. He absolutely towered over Minato as he looked downwards in anger and spite, his height making the Yondaime crane his neck to look up at him.

_Wait a minute, _Minato thought, perplexed at the drastic height difference in the two of them. _I know I'm not _that _short..._ Ignoring the strange man in favor looking down, Minato gave into his curiosity and his breath caught in his throat in surprise and shock. The ground was far to close and his hands were smaller than he was used to, and looked to be the hands of a small child, not a fully trained ninja. His eyes widened, and aloud he said, enunciating each syllable, "Holy shit!"

The man in front of him lost a small piece of his anger, his eyebrows drawing together slightly. He said something smoothly that sounded like a question because of the intonation and the higher part at the end, making the now _boy_ Minato snap his head up. Confused blue eyes looked into still-fiery black.

"What?" Minato asked intelligently, noticing with a large amount of relief that his shinobi outfit had somehow shrunk with him, but he realized that his headband had slipped to hang around his neck. The only problem was that his outfit had suffered from... from...

His memories on what had happened hit Minato like a ton of bricks, and he leaned against the rock behind him, tangling his fingers in his hair, eyes glazing over slightly. Naruto, the masked man, Kushina, the sealing, unbearable pain, the Kyuubi... Kushina, Naruto, the Kyuubi… Kyuubi, the sealing… The sealing... Kyuubi... Horrified he thought, _Oh, Kami... The Kyuubi!_

Slowly, Minato looked down at his stomach, terrified about what he would see. There was a giant hole in his the top of his blue shirt, his jounin vest missing, the edges stained and hardened with old blood. And on the skin that was visible near the bottom of the hole was the top half of an ink-black seal that glared at him in contrast against his skin.

The blonde's hands clenched into fists in his hair, and closed his eyes, distraught as he slumped against the cool stone. Softly he said, ignoring the maniacal laughter echoing in the back of his mind, "Kami, I can't believe I did that…"

The extraordinarily tall man's clothes rustled slightly as he tensed, and the Yellow Flash came to the conclusion that in having sealed part of the Kyuubi into himself he had unintentionally increased his senses, somehow. Opening his eyes he looked through his bangs at the man, realizing that, even though it was fairly dark in the cave, he could still see everything as clear as if it were in broad daylight. The boy could smell the stench of death from the man, as well as just feel the sheer amount of power that radiated off him even with that slightly startled shadow on his face.

"Who are you?" The blonde asked without thinking, sounding very rude and not particularly caring. "And where am I?"

Anger played across the stranger's pale face, and his lips curled back slightly in a snarl that transformed into a wicked grin that sparked more fear in Minato than the snarl. In a cold voice, he hissed words Minato could actually understand, "Ungrateful, ignorant, foolish mortal! I am Hades, the god of the underworld and the dead, and this is my home. And you are not dead, nor a demigod on a quest, and, therefore, should not be here. Any last worlds before you join the ranks of the dead for intruding here, child?"

"But I thought Shinigami was the death god, Hades-sama," Minato said, confused and burying the fear and anger burning and freezing his insides the best he could while adding the honorific to give him a handful more seconds to live and figure a way out of his predicament. As an afterthought he added, "And what do you mean by me not being dead?"

"'Shinigami…' What do you know about Shinigami?" Dark eyes bore into Minato and he gulped slightly.

"That he is the death god and can be summoned to seal souls at the cost of a life and that the two permanently joined souls are thrown into a limbo between heaven and hell." Minato said, somehow keeping a brave face and continued staring straight in the eyes of Death himself. Privately, Minato thought as a slight headache started to bother him, _What's wrong with me today? Am I acting like this because I'm a child again, or is it some… instinct?_

"What do you mean summon?" Hades' eyes narrowed as his he somehow made himself taller.

"I mean exactly what the word entails, but at a price of more than just simply blood." Minato stated, trying to push his uneasiness away.

"Hmm..." The death god looked down at him curiously. "And how would a brat like you know this?"

"Because..." Minato stopped, uncertain if he should divulge the information to a complete stranger, but the look he received from the man made him decide. The blonde continued softly, "Because I made one of these pacts with Shinigami himself..."

Hades looked at him oddly for a moment, as if unsure if what he was hearing was truth or not. "Then who are you, you who says they have made a pact with Shinigami, and where are you from?"

The fear that had frozen his insides miraculously melted at that question, and Minato raised his chin almost defiantly to look the man in the eyes. Not taking his eyes away, the boy untied his headband from around his neck and retied it around his head with slightly clumsy fingers. Giving the god a grin that did not suit a child, Minato said, "I am Namikaze Minato, a jounin shinobi, Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō**(A. N. #1)**, Yondaime Hokage** (A. N. #2)** of Konohagakure no Sato** (A. N. #3)**, and a jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko."

-::- -::- -::-

Hades stared at the boy in disbelief. There was no possible way that anyone besides a god or goddess could have crossed the dimensional barrier separating this world from that of the shinobi world. Let alone a child! But this child standing in front of the death god, and giving him a defiant and knowing look that no mortal child alive should posses, was, apparently, proof. The small blonde knew more about that world than any mortal on this world should know, was able to speak the language only native to that world, and the name and final pieces of information he had given... They were the only things that made the credible information crumble. Namikaze was _not_ a boy, nor the junchuuriki of a tailed beast, let alone the Kyuubi.

A condescending chuckle worked its way out of Hades, and the blonde's look evaporated. "You are no Namikaze Minato, nor are you the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko. Namikaze is a man, you foolish boy, and the Kyuubi is sealed in a certain redheaded Uzumaki! Plus there is no way you, a mortal, could make it here without a god's help this year with the conflict between the gods!"

The blonde boy glared at him, blue eyes chips of ice. In a smooth voice, he said softly, "What if I had proof, Hades-sama, proof that I came from the other side of this dimensional barrier?"

"What proof could you tell me that could validate your claim, 'Minato'?" The pale god sneered; believing the boy had no solid proof.

In response, he was given a bitter smile from the boy that would have made a mortal adult stare. Carefully, small hands lifted up the hem of his ruined shirt and fishnet-chain mail to reveal the boy's stomach and a dark, familiar, sun-like seal emblazoned on the peachy skin. Hades felt a small flicker of surprise as Minato said, "This here seal is my proof, Hades-sama. Proof that, by all means, says I should be dead, staring at Shinigami, and trapped for an eternity in purgatory with half of a not-so-nice Kyuubi. But it seems that Shinigami has other plans with me, plans that, for some reason, involve me being here, far from home, and a child once again.

"So I do hope that you believe me now, Hades-sama, when I say that I am Minato Namikaze and the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Yoko, because, if not, find Shinigami and ask him yourself." A slight glint entered the boy's eyes that made Hades believe him and immediately call for an emergency meeting with the other Olympians...

-::- -::- -::-

Minato stared at his surroundings in complete amazement. Not completely understanding how the heck there was a mountain floating in midair above a place that made Konoha look small, and no one noticed a thing. Curiously, he ran over to the railing that someone had put up and peered over the edge, trying to see through the clouds, his new clothes and coat—identical to the last one—fluttering in the breeze.

After Minato had somehow convinced the death god that he was telling the truth, Hades sent a message to someone. The messenger was a man with salt and pepper hair and a look on his face that made Minato's hand drift slowly to his kunai pouch and hover there to snatch a kunai out at a moment's notice. The fact that the man had appeared out of nowhere and kept shooting glances his way as he and Hades talked to each other in another language did not ease Minato's nerves. As quickly as the strange man had come he was gone in a bright light that almost seared the blonde's eyes to the point of blindness while giving him an itching feeling that he should be dead. The fox ranted on about stupid human containers always needing him to save them because of various and stupid reasons in the back of his mind.

For a moment, Hades had stared at Minato slightly incredulously, as if waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. The slight staring match between them was interrupted when Hades made a comment about how the boy needed new clothes, and somehow made some appear. Minato walked over, gazing at the clothing as if it would bite him before it was thrust at him by an impatient death god, making the man-turned-boy stumble backwards slightly. When he did not change, Hades gave him a glare that gave one message: change or else.

Quickly, he stripped to his boxers and changed into the outfit. He looked down at the black shirt with the emblem of the fire country stitched in silver—underneath he wore new ninja fishnet-chain mail—black ANBU-style pants and his black ninja sandals that had replaced his bloodstained blue ones. Thankfully, his ruined coat was replaced with a brand new one, complete with "Fourth Hokage" on the back. _All in all, _Minato thought, strapping his kunai pouches to their designated spots_, not that bad... But not what I would have picked first… Oh, well._

When the strange man reappeared again, he barely avoided a three-pronged kunai that whizzed past his head, and turned to look at a rather sheepish Minato. When he apologized, the man's eyes widened while the blonde gave him a shaky smile as he rushed to retrieve the knife. Minato felt his eyes following him while the man relayed a message that the boy did not understand, but realized that he had left when there was another flash and the weight of his gaze disappeared. Next thing the blonde knew, Hades grabbed his shoulder right as his small fingers gripped the overly large kunai, and there was the oddest sensation of being pulled through a dark tunnel at an extremely high speed. Then he was almost blinded by the light his eyes were suddenly greeted to as he found himself on a floating mountaintop, swaying drunkenly.

"Namikaze, follow me, now." Hades ordered, his robes of tortured people swirling around him before they turned into a satin business suit, much to Minato's surprise. The blonde boy ran to catch up and the kept a steady jog just to not loose the man, his coat flapping happily at his heels.

Half-human half-goat men with curling horns protruding from their heads looked at the boy curiously. Men and women with a slightly overly-healthy youthful look to their person kept their gazes adverted from Hades while stealing confused looks at Minato that became shocked when they saw the back of his jacket. Literal leaf women and girls danced around to some music produced by a trio of half-human-goat men. He could have sworn even the trees and bushes cringed away from the god as the god passed, but passed it off as his reacquired, overactive imagination that came with being a six-year-old again.

_Wait a minute…_ he thought, confused. _How do I know I'm six…?_

He stumbled on a step, about falling face-first on the marble, and snapped back to awareness of his surroundings. Hades strode up to an intricate door a good twenty feet high and grew, making Minato gap at the man that was twelve feet in height as he stepped through the doorway. Stunned, Minato followed, the door closing behind him with a loud noise that cut off the small amount of chatter that was going on in the room. Chatter that had came from a group of eleven men and women that were all, respectively, twelve feet tall as well, making the extremely short blonde very nervous and jittery when twenty-two eyes locked on him.

Someone made a half-interested, half-bored sounding comment in that same language that Minato did not understand. Swiveling his head around quickly to look at the speaker, he felt a sudden surge of rage that swept through him just by looking at the leather-clad man's shaded eyes that glowed behind his mirror sunglasses. The scarred, muscled man gave the boy a fierce smile as blue eyes narrowed in a calculating way. The Kyuubi roared for Minato to give in to the rage that set his heartbeat racing and hands tingle as he instinctively channeled chakra there to perform a jutsu at a moments notice, being careful to not let the chakra make his hands glow.

The semi-familiar voice of Hades snapped something to the man that Minato was all-but glaring at, snapping him out of the anger-induced adrenaline state. He gasped slightly, feeling as if a bucket of ice-cold water was dumped on him and absorbed into his bloodstream, and shook his head, clearing away the haze and blocking out the fox's roars. The blonde looked away from the man and up, looking right into the eyes of another man.

He was not dressed up in a suit, instead wore odd looking leather sandals, khaki shorts, and a collared shirt. He sat in a giant swivel chair that made Minato miss his own Hokage chair, a glowing, blue-green trident resting in a holster built into it. Sea-green eyes with smile line splaying around them looked at Minato curiously, and the blonde returned the look with a small, nervous smile. The man's lips twitched upward slightly. A faint scent of seawater reached Minato's super-sensitive nose.

A deep, booming voice like thunder, with all of the power of a raging storm in it, made Minato jump and look at the man with wide eyes. This man sat in a solid platinum throne next to the man in the swivel chair, dressed in a pinstriped suit that was an almost black navy color. He looked at the Yondaime Hokage with proud gray eyes that reminded the blonde of a cloudy sky just before a storm. A two-foot-long jagged looking javelin of what looked like pure lightning was clutched in one hand. The faint scent of the sea was replaced by the overwhelming smell of ozone and the hairs on the back of Minato's neck stood on end when the air suddenly became charged with electricity, almost as if someone was preparing an insanely high level Raiton jutsu.

The man gave a death glare to Hades sitting on a simple chair, pointed at Minato with his lightning bolt—making the blonde's eyes widen drastically before he tried to scurry out of the way of the weapon's point—and all but yelled something. Thunder clapped in the insanely large room and the boy covered his ears, screwing his eyes almost shut in pain while cold fear settling in his stomach once more. His breathing became slightly ragged as he felt the air in the room shift slightly, making breathing a great deal harder as his ears popped. Minato knew this was not killing intent, but something else, something far more dangerous. A simple sounding reply from the death god made the room return to normal while sparking a loud debate between the twelve.

Minato gasped and rested his hands on his knees as he bent over, ears popping once more. The panic at not being able to breathe properly slowly faded away with each breath. He could feel someone's eyes locked on him and did not look up for a moment, glad the shadows cast by his bangs and long sideburn-bangs hid the majority of his face. His face contorted into a grimace when he realized just how loud the giant people were talking, still in that odd language. Straightening up, the boy realized that the gaze he felt was from a woman with gray eyes glimmering with intelligence, making him think of the Nara clan, but there was no sign of laziness in them unlike the infamously lazy clan.

Minato blinked when she looked slightly startled when Hades said, "... shinobi... jutsu... Shinigami... Namikaze Minato... jinchuuriki... Kyuubi... Uzumaki Kushina..." The room became deathly silent when the god finished. The air then seemed to fill with tension, putting Minato on edge.

Tentatively, afraid that the room would break into chaos, the man-turned-boy said, "Hai, Hades-sama. Were you addressing me? I couldn't tell because... well, I couldn't understand you really, except for a few random words there at the end." He shifted on his feet awkwardly, trying to ignore the looks he was receiving. "Plus, I'm at a loss about what is going on here. And why did you mention Kushina? I understand if you were talking about the Kyuubi no Yoko, but the fact is..." The blonde flinched, and continued softly. "She's dead..."

The boy felt the surprise in the room at what he had said, before someone burst out laughing. Snapping around to fully face the perpetrator, Minato glared at the same leather-clad man from before. Just looking at him a second time brought up the strange anger that was suddenly thrown upon him. There was a sudden surge in his chakra, and the blonde's hands lit up an odd blue-green as the chakra that he had channeled there pushed its way to the surface of his skin, coating it like a fiery glove and hissing like an angry snake. He did not note that his chakra control was crappy.

"So, you stooped that low, huh?" The man said in a rough tone, carrying amusement. Minato glared, forcing the chakra back so it slowly became a thin layer over his hands more like a tight fitting glove instead before disappearing altogether. "You sealed the fox into you for power after ripping it out of you wife, using a seal that was fatal. Pathetic."

"Aries!" The woman with intelligent gray eyes snapped as Minato ducked his head; chin to his chest and he grit his teeth in a silent rage. His eyes were shut tight. "Don't rile him up like that! Just your presence does that! You don't—"

No one knew what she would have said next as Minato's eyes snapped open, shining an angry red. He glanced up at Aries—whose eyebrows rose—and disappeared. The war god's slightly slack face showed his surprise when he appeared, teeth bared—showing off enlarged canine teeth—perched on the back of the god's throne like some odd bird. His nails, which had become longer and appeared claw-like, dug into the throne with a loud, protesting noise as he kept his balance. Angry, red, cat-like eyes glared at Aries, as Minato's already wildly spiky hair became wilder to the point it looked uncontrollable.

In a deadly voice that was deeper and rougher than any six-year-old should have, he growled, "Do _not_ accuse me of killing Kushina, EVER AGAIN!"

"As if you could back that up as you are, little Namikaze," he replied coolly. The shock was wiped off of the god's face, and he swiped a hand at the extremely small blonde, only to meet thin air.

Minato instead crouched on the floor in font of the god's throne in a defensive stance. He shifted into a stance on all fours easily, much like he had seen people of the Inuzuka clan do many times before. The Yondaime Hokage's red-eyed stare bored into the man that was at least five times taller than he was, not to mention stronger, without a care in the world, his blood pumping. The fox was yelling at him to murder this man and give into his rage from behind the bars of his mental cage. Heat flared through the boy's body, originating from his stomach, making him feel like he was on fire in a semi-comfortable, uncomfortable way.

"Minato!" Hades snapped, and Minato swiveled his head to look at the death god. Forcefully, the porcelain-skinned man ordered, "Calm down."

Seeing the look in the god's eyes was close to murderous, the Yellow Flash played it safe and nodded, stood up straight, and closed his eyes, concentrating on meditating to calm his mind and the torrent of emotions he was feeling that were in a cyclone of anger. Slowly the rage that had bubbled up in the blonde receded, a great deal slower than last time. When it finally dissipated, Minato had that dunked in icy-water feeling from before and felt drained of energy. The only thing that was different was that this time he had a splitting headache. He stumbled backwards, clutching his head with a groan, and tripped on his own feet, falling over.

"Not the 'mighty' Yellow Flash is he?" Aries chuckled softly, darkly.

Minato chose to ignore the man, and opened his eyes that were back to their normal blue, pupils slowly growing smaller into a more human-like appearance. He stood turning to face another direction, and ended up facing the messenger man from before with the salt and pepper hair. Sheepishly, he scratched the nape of his neck and looked down at the floor.

"What are we going to do with him, Brother?" A man said, and Minato looked up at the man from before with sea-green eyes. His large hand was dangerously close to his weapon as if he was prepared to use it at any second. Minato averted his eyes once more to the floor.

"That's what I called for this meeting for, Poseidon," Hades said.

"I say we hear what his story is before we decide, don't you agree, Father?" The voice of the gray-eyed woman said.

"Hmm… Very well, Athena." The same deep voice from the man with the javelin-like weapon said. "Namikaze Minato, say what you will so the gods know the story of what happened before you came to be here, the full story."

Minato looked up at the man, and cautiously began, "Well, first I should say that I am _not _supposed to be six, again, and have no idea why I am. But the reason that I am here, I believe, is tied into me sealing half of the Kyuubi into myself.

"See there was this masked man that, after Kushina had birthed our son, Naruto, attacked. He separated me from Kushina, and withdrew the fox from her, leaving her barely alive. I managed to save her from dying at the claws of the fox right then by using the Hiraishin no Jutsu**(A. N. #4)** to take her where I had left Naruto.

"I then engaged this man in battle, managing to free the Kyuubi from his control, and was somehow able to hit the man with a Rasengan** (A. N. #5)**. He kept using his own space-time jutsu to make himself intangible in a certain area of his body and used this same technique to transport himself away in the end.

"That's when I engaged the fox. I ended up summoning Gamabunta and got him to pin the demon down for a short amount of time. As Kyuubi was preparing an attack, I realized something. The only way to stop it was to seal it. And to seal it into an extremely young infant…" He trailed off, tilting his head down. Closing his eyes, images played like a soundless movie in the darkness behind his eyelids.

"I used my Hiraishin no jutsu once more and, using a fair chunk of my chakra, moved the fox and myself somewhere out of Konoha. The safe house I had used for a reference point was destroyed and I barely managed to get Naruto and Kushina out of it. Kushina put up a barrier after I mentioned putting one up, as well as using her chakra chains to hold the fox down so it could not get away.

"We… We talked for a short amount of time, and I placed Naruto on the ground. Then I started to perform hand signs. Hand signs for the Shiki Fuin." Minato stopped, his throat threatening to close up on him, but he pushed on. His soft voice echoed slightly in the hall, sounding distant to his own ears when he spoke again. "I talked to Kushina a little more before sealing half of the fox inside myself…

"I managed to summon the altar, and placed my son on it. As I did this Kushina's chains on the Kyuubi loosened." The blonde's heartbeat rose as the scene replayed itself in his head. "The fox took advantage of this and tried to attack Naruto. Both Kushina and I stopped the claw from hitting him with inches to spare, but… it… we weren't unharmed. A single claw ran each of us cleanly through our chests.

"In the few moments before we both ran out of chakra and blood we talked to Naruto, even though he couldn't understand us, being a newborn. Then I sealed the remainder of our chakra and the other half of the fox into our son with the Eight Trigrams Seal. There was a short span of darkness then I woke up in Hades-sama's garden as a six-year-old again." Minato finished, his throat tightening an unbearable amount to the point it was painful as he held back tears and sobs.

There was a silence that seemed to stretch forever to Minato. A silence in which the tears burning in his eyes spilled over and he silently cried, his head still bowed, eyes closed. A man interrupted the silence.

"Well, that was an interesting story, but it doesn't explain how you got here, or help us figure out what to do with you." The voice drawled, and Minato kept his head down, not bothering to look up.

"But it does give me an idea, Dionysus…" The familiar voice of the woman—Athena?—said, and Minato opened his eyes and peeked through his bangs to look at the woman as his crying almost stopped. She was looking at him with gray eyes as stormy as her Father's. She opened her mouth and said something in the language that Minato did not understand. The room immediately broke out into surprised exclamations, making Minato cover his ears.

-::- -::- -::-

Poseidon looked down at the blonde boy as his face scrunched up in pain, hands flying to cover his ears as the other twelve Olympians started to shout about Athena's idea to let him go to Camp Half-Blood, but only after his seal was reinforced. The sea god was not fully supportive of the wisdom goddess's idea, but it would give the gods the ability to make sure that he would not get into mischief in this world that was new to him. Absentmindedly, he heard Aries shout something above the cacophony of noise that sounded suspiciously like something along the lines of his children being able to beat the kid up.

_He's about the same age as my son is now, _Poseidon thought, slightly guiltily at the fact he had broken the pact he and his brothers had made. _But I'm not the only one to break that pact…_ He snuck a short glance at Zeus, whose stormy eyes were slightly distant as he thought the suggestion over.

Suddenly, the sky god boomed in English, "I agree with my daughter. It will at least let us figure out what to do with him eventually, but that seal on him does have to be dealt with first."

The room fell silent; Apollo looked slightly shocked along with Artemis as the twins shared a fleeting look. Aries grinned wickedly, his eyes behind his glasses glowing slightly brighter. Dionysus looked indifferent, while Hephaestus fiddled with something in his lap, face almost impassive. Aphrodite had a bored yet concerned look on her face as she twirled a lock of her hair around a finger absentmindedly. Hermes had a wicked looking grin, as if he was excited that there was going to be a ninja in the camp to help his sons and daughters learn how to sneak around and steal things. Hera just looked at the boy in front of the gods with an interested look in her eyes. Minato cautiously uncovered his ears and opened his eyes, looking around the room at the different gods and goddesses, skipping over Aries and stopping on Poseidon.

"The only problem is how to reinforce it," Zeus said, his eyes moving toward Hades. Minato gained a frustrated look when he was unable to understand what was being said. "Hades, do you have any idea on how to do this?"

"I'm not sure," the death god said, gaining a slightly thoughtful look, "but my best guess is to add some godly power into. This would make it to where only another god could tamper with it, or if the boy somehow becomes friends with the fox then the power added would become insignificant compared to the stress the seal would suffer from both sides of it. It would probably start making the boy's chakra and the fox's chakra merge some unintentionally, giving him larger than normal chakra reserves. But to do this we would have to have a god whose power resonates strongly with the seal and his chakra, otherwise the seal will only be strengthened for a few years, at best, or break really quickly at worst.

"This strengthening may also have an unwanted side effect, though. He may start attracting more monsters than he would have normally thanks to the fox because he may smell like a demigod; a strong one at that." Hades finished; not sparing a glance at the clearly frustrated Minato, who had plopped himself down on the floor. The six-year-old yawned softly, tears forming in the corners of his eyes, making Poseidon laugh inside.

The sea god had to admit that although he was tempted to blast the blonde into a puddle of seawater earlier he was an interesting case. He was the first shinobi to make it to this side of the barrier that Gaea and Ouranos had put up long ago with the uncalled for help from the Kami of the other world, thus separating the world of the gods from the world of the shinobis, for mortals at least. He dragged himself out of his thoughts when Hera spoke up for the first time during the meeting.

"Exactly how strong are you proposing he would smell to monsters?" The goddess of marriage asked with a biting edge to her tone of voice, shooting Zeus a glare that made the man flinch. Poseidon knew that she was angry his brother had broken the vow the three had made, he was just lucky know one knew about _his_ son, yet.

"He may very well smell like a child of the Big Three," the death god said, tension growing in the air. "And seeing as I do have the best chance at my power resonating with his seal due to its nature, he may smell like a son of mine. His characteristics and natural chakra nature—as well as any chakra natures he may have acquired—will also affect the compatibility, too."

"That means what exactly? That only ones with the ability to control an element have a chance at being able to strengthen the seal?" Aries asked, procuring a knife out of nowhere and cleaning his nails. Minato turned his head slightly, his small body tensing when he glimpsed the weapon, a smaller hand going to a pouch on the boy's leg.

"The elemental control will help, but it all falls down to if the seal appears clearly on his stomach when exposed to some of a god or goddess's power. The problem is determining who has the best chance." Hades looked over at Minato who was still peering out of the corner of his eyes at the knife the war god was wielding.

"It shouldn't be too hard, Hades," Hermes commented, an odd smile on his face that made Poseidon curious. "We could just shown him a little of our true forms one at a time and maybe the seal would react then. He didn't die when he saw me in my true form for all of half a second when I went down to your domain for delivering your message. It must have something to do with the fox in him. Will that work?"

There was a stunned silence except for the shuffling of Minato on the floor. After a while Athena said, "From what I understand, it just might work. So who's first?"

"I'll go," Hades said. He switched to the odd branch of Japanese that was only spoken in the Elemental Nations. "Minato, will you please show us the seal."

"Hai, Hades-sama," the blonde replied with an odd look at the god, getting to his feet. Shamelessly, he slipped off his coat and pulled his shirt off, revealing his fishnet-chain mail underneath before slipping that off too. Positioning his hands into a hand sign, the boy channeled his chakra with his eyes closed in concentration. His faced screwed up in slight confusion for a second, eyebrows drawing together as a small ring of chakra appeared spinning on the floor around him. A black, spiraling, sun-like marking suddenly appeared on the boy's stomach.

Poseidon looked at it curiously, taking his time to memorize every little detail. There were seven squiggly triangles surrounding a circling spiral that was focused around the small blonde's navel. Something about the seal seemed like a bane of nature, and the sea god's hand drifted closer to his trident resting in its holster. The seal was morally wrong. It was based on a god's power along with a mortal's soul, and was currently holding the most powerful of the bijuu, excluding the Juubi, in an extremely small boy with little to no trouble at all.

"Thank you, Minato," Athena said, her gray eyes calculating. The boy shivered under her gaze, and dropped his hand to his side, semi-close to the kunai pouch on his waist. He reached down to grab the chain mail.

"Not yet, Namikaze," Aries said, pointing the knife at the blonde. Minato straightened with the chain mail in his hands.

"Why, not Aries-sama," He said, stressing the "-sama" part even though it sounded like he was spitting out poison.

"We have to see something, Namikaze. Something very important," Hades told the boy, his form blurring on the edges. Minato looked at him curiously, and blinked multiple times in a row as if seeing something extremely bright.

"Um… Hades-sama, why are you glowing?" He asked, blinking like crazy before rubbing his eyes, his pupils becoming cat-like again. Nothing happened. The boy did not start to smoke even a little bit, but he did look like someone that was being effected by the Mist. The seal reappeared slightly, merely a hazy gray outline.

"What do you mean?" The god replied, going back to normal, his form solidifying from a hazy outline to solid angles.

"Never mind…" Minato murmured, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes, missing the nod Hades gave for the next god to try.

They went around the room, each god and goddess showing a piece of their true form, but there was no luck. The only three other times that the seal even appeared was for Poseidon, Zeus, and, surprisingly, Artemis, but it only darkened the same amount that it had for Hades with Artemis's try barely a marking at all. Minato looked completely confused as to what was going on.

"Now what?" Dionysus asked in English, propping his head in one hand, elbow on the arm of his vine throne.

"I don't know…" The death god said.

"Maybe, to see whom the seal resonates with best, we have to show our true forms. We just have to get him to close his eyes so he isn't affected by it too much." Poseidon suggested, getting a nod from his brother. Switching languages again, the god said, "Minato, will you close your eyes?"

"Okay," the blonde replied hesitantly, knowing something was up as he closed his blue eyes. Not wasting any time, the three brothers showed their true form one at a time. The seal responded to each of the three gods about equally, much to their annoyance.

"So who's going to reinforce the seal?" Aries asked, extremely bored, in English.

"I say Hades. The seal appeared much quicker for him than it did for you, Father, Poseidon," Athena stated.

"Very well," Zeus all but grumbled, the air around him still charged with static.

"Namikaze, come here," Hades commanded after a very brief nod. Nervously, the boy opened his eyes and walked over to the god. All eyes were on him as he looked around at the Olympians, with Poseidon giving him an encouraging smile. On the inside the sea god pitied the boy for the pain he was about to experience, waiting for his brother to reinforce the seal, and reinforce it he did.

In one swift movement, Hades placed his hand right over the spot where the seal was hidden, fingers splayed. The seal dissolved into being on the boy's stomach once more, and shined a bright white as Hades quickly put some of his power into it. The blonde let out a pained cry, his body stiffening before he dropped to the floor unconscious.

"There, it is done," Hades said, his pale skin looking even paler than normal if that was possible. With a snap of the man's fingers Minato's chain mail, shirt, and coat were back on the boy. "Now we just have to wait and see whether he is attacked my monsters or not."

"You're not sending him directly to the Camp?" Dionysus queried, looking up from the vines he had been making grow into an intricate design with the movement of a single lazy finger.

"No." Athena stated with her chin raised high. "He needs to go to Camp Half-Blood on his own or be escorted by a satyr like other campers."

"Fine by me," the wine god said indifferently.

"But to survive even a miniscule amount he needs to know the English language," Athena continued. "If no one will deny me from giving him this gift…"

No one said a thing, and Poseidon silently agreed with the goddess. In order for Minato to stand a chance he would have to know English. Getting up from her throne, Athena shrunk down to the height of a normal human. She bent down to touch the blonde on the small part of his forehead she could that was not covered by his headband with a slim index finger. After muttering a few words in Minato's native tongue, English, and ancient Greek, Athena stepped back.

"Is there anything else that must be done during this meeting?" Zeus asked, looking around.

"Just one, the child needs a weapon that will work against monsters," Hephaestus commented, taking his attention away from the odd contraption in his lap. "Does anyone have anything?"

All eyes were averted to Aries who looked up from messing around with his knife. "What? Fine, I'll give the brat a knife and, since he is already familiar with kunais, how about this?" The man procured another knife from a pocket in his jacket. It was Celestial bronze dagger a little longer than the standard kunai, and in the general shape but without the loop on the end. "Is this good enough?"

"It will do," Hephaestus said, going back to tinkering.

"If that is all then this meeting is adjourned!" Zeus thundered—literally as thunder rumbled in the background. Poseidon resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Athena went over to the war god, plucked the dagger from his hand, and walked back over to Minato. Carefully, she put the weapon in his hand where his small fingers wrapped around the black leather hilt. She gave Hermes a look that he nodded at and, with a wave of his hand, the blonde disappeared in a flash of light.

Softly, Poseidon murmured as he stood up, gripping his trident, "Good luck, Namikaze Minato, you'll need it."

The sea god disappeared from the throne room, leaving the lingering scent of the sea hanging in the air.

-::- -::- -::

Minato's eyes slowly slid open to see grass right in front of his face. For a second he lay there, wondering where he was as his brain started to process his memories. Suddenly, he bolted into a sitting position, his blue eyes wide, when there was an extremely loud, irritating noise from somewhere. He realized right then that one: he was not in the underworld at Hades-sama's palace. Two: he was not at Olympus. Three: he was not in Konoha. Four: he had absolutely no idea where he was and how he got there. And five: there was some odd, bronze knife that was not his in his hand.

Looking curiously at the weapon he was holding, Minato realized that it was extremely like a kunai in size and shape, and figured that the dagger was a gift for him from one of the god after Hades did whatever he did to his seal. Clutching the dagger, the blonde stood up and realized that wherever he was, it was not a forest because it was much too noisy to be a forest. So using the process of elimination, he figured he was in the middle of a large city in a park.

"Hold up, what is a 'city'?" Minato thought aloud, and blinked. Something was off about the way he was speaking. The way he was forming the words made no since, and the way the words sounded to his ears was different. Slowly he said, "My name is Minato Namikaze."

_No, that's not right, it's Namikaze Minato!_ He thought, glaring at the ground. Concentrating really hard about the way he was saying things, he said, "My name is Namikaze Minato."

His eyes widened, that time it sounded normal. Then he said, not thinking about what he was saying all that much, "My name is Minato Namikaze." His jaw fell open, when the realization of what he was doing hit him. "How the heck am I speaking another language without meaning to! Damn it, this is confusing…"

The blonde felt a headache coming on, but a twig snapping brought his attention back to his surroundings while he cursed himself for being inattentive of his surroundings for even a short amount of time. Snapping his head up, Minato's sharp blue eyes raked the bushes at the edge of the clearing for any sign of danger, slowly turning around to make sure nothing was behind him. A growl made him swivel to the right to see a huge dog with glowing red eyes that seemed to freeze him in place.

The dog towered over Minato by at least a two feet at it's' shoulders, with his head low, ears pinned back. It growled again as it sniffed the air, baring teeth that were as long as his hands and could easily rip open the blonde's throat. It took a slow, purposeful step forward, slinking down into a crouching position, muscles coiling underneath a short, midnight-black coat. Minato slipped into a defensive stance, holding the dagger in a backwards grip in his right hand with his arm in front of him; the slightly worn leather providing him an excellent grip. With a howl the beast leapt at him, paws outstretched so its' claws could find purchase in flesh.

Time slowed down as Minato dove forward with a roll, the large canine-like creature sailing over him harmlessly. Getting his feet under him at the end of the roll, he turned and sprang onto the creature's back, free hand searching for a grip in its' fur. He drove the dagger down in a golden arch, slicing through the muscles at the back of beasts' neck easily as he buried it hilt deep into the base of the skull, a splatter of blood covering his face. It shuddered underneath him, and started to crumble away into a golden dust that drifted away on the slight breeze.

Too surprised to land properly, the Yellow Flash fell unceremoniously to the ground in a heap, getting covered in the dust as it stuck to his wet face. Sitting up he blinked the dust out of his eyes, trying to rub the blood and dust off his face, only smearing the disgusting mixture over his skin. Ruffling his hair with his other hand to get the sand out of it, he murmured, "What just happened and what the hell was that?"

Not expecting a response, he jumped back into an attacking position when a voice said, "That was a hellhound, a monster. They tend to like having demigods for supper, Blondie. You're lucky that that thing is one of the more stupid monsters out there and that you're small with speed. But still, good work."

The speaker was a girl in a shirt that said something with a doll missing its' head, also clad in a black leather jacket. On her wrist she wore a bracelet. Her hair was black, and her eyes were an electric blue as much as a stormy gray. Her companions were a sandy-haired boy, a curly-haired boy with a hat on, and a blonde girl about Minato's age with gray eyes. They all looked a little worse for the wear, especially the young girl.

"Um… Thanks, I guess." Minato said. In all truth it was not as hard as other battles he has had to fight, but he had to admit he did have the advantage of intelligence and speed compared to the monster.

"Thalia, we don't have time to waste! There are monsters on our tail as we speak right now!" The sandy-haired boy told the girl with the odd shirt.

"I know that, Luke, but we can't just leave him for the monsters to get either," she retorted, with a dramatic roll of her eyes that clearly said that she already knew that. "Hey, kid, what's your name?"

"Minato. Minato Namikaze." He replied, putting the dagger in his hip pouch for easy reach.

"Want to come with us, Minato? We're going someplace safe for people like us." Thalia volunteered, throwing a look over her shoulder. "You'll have to decide now, though, we don't have much time."

"Sure, why not," he shrugged. _But I highly doubt I'm "like you" Thalia._ He thought.

She grinned, making Minato suppress a shiver as it felt as if something cold slid down his spine.

-::- -::- -::-

_Why the hell did I agree to travel with these people? _Minato thought miserably as he ran, panting like crazy, alongside Annabeth—the blonde girl. Unfortunately, being a child again meant that Minato's stamina was horrible and he would have to go through all of those miserable hours of training again to get back up to top form. Yet right then, he didn't care since there was a horde of monsters chasing after them.

The blonde had only been with the group for a day, and already liked them, falling into a comfortable companionship with them. He found out that Grover—the curly-haired boy—was one of the half-goat people creatures when he saw the boy's cloven hooves for feet. The boy bleated when he made a comment and informed the Yondaime that he was a satyr officially, probably thinking that would clear things up but only making Minato more confused.

Thalia apparently was a daughter of Zeus—the god who had the lightning bolt weapon—, which explained all of the monsters. Grover even mentioned that they were attracted to her smell, making Minato stumble while they had been running some more away from some lizard-lady thing. The satyr even mentioned that Minato had an odd, yet strong, smell that was attracting even more attention than Thalia's for some reason, and earned a glare from the boy who retorted that Grover smelled like goat.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Minato heard Grover yell, "Almost there! We just have to make it over that hill!"

Chancing a glance over his shoulder, Minato saw the monsters too close for comfort, and easily gaining. They were not going to make it with that extremely steep hill to go and the distance the monsters were gaining each second to the groups slowing speed as exhaustion took its toll. Apparently, Thalia noticed these facts too.

"Grover, Luke, get Minato and Annabeth to safety! I'll hold the monster's off as long as I can!" She ordered, spinning around, her spear in hand with her shield brandished on her other arm. In a voice so soft that was not loud enough for normal human hearing to hear, she muttered, "They're after me after all."

Minato all-but stopped, his eyes growing wide as he looked at the girl that was only twelve, willing to sacrifice her own life to save those of her friends. Kakashi's voice echoed in his head, quoting Obito's life-changing words: _"Those in the ninja world that disobey the rules and regulations are called trash, but… those who don't care about their companions are even worse trash."_

Narrowing his eyes, Minato started to turn on the balls of his feet, leaning down to turn quickly as his hand skimmed the down, rubbing his fingertips raw. He did not get far when arms wrapped around his mid-section securely, sweeping him off the ground. The culprit revealed it was Luke when he grunted, "Oh, no you don't, squirt! Grover, get Annabeth, I've got Minato!"

The boy bleated in response, and Minato figured that he had grabbed Annabeth's hand to drag her along a little faster. Minato squirmed, swearwords streaming out of his mouth as he cursed Luke and his non-godly parent. Granted, half were in his native tongue, half in the new language, English. A few odd words that he could not quite understand slipped out too, things he had heard Grover, Luke, or Thalia say occasionally when they did not think either he or Annabeth could hear or were not listening.

"Stop squirming or I'll knock you out!" Luke snapped.

The effect was immediate and Minato stopped trying to get away. Everything from the past few days slowly came crashing down on him. His six-year-old body was reaching the end of its endurance on nothing but a few hours of sleep and, although Minato knew it, he decided to ignore the fact right then. Suddenly, Minato felt an invisible force trying to stop him, but with an instinctual burst of chakra, the resistance disappeared. Finally, Luke turned stopping a few meters away from where the small boy had felt the barrier, and turned.

Thalia was standing on the crest of the hill, about ten meters from the barrier. Her spear and shield held in defensive positions as the monsters descended upon her. Minato tried to bolt to help her, and Luke grabbed him, pinning his arms to his sides so he could not reach for a weapon to get free. Faintly he heard a horn, Annabeth screaming, Grover saying something in response, and Luke yelling something incomprehensible, making the young boy's ears ring.

Then Thalia disappeared from view. Lightning struck down monsters in a great display of randomness. A great deal burst apart in showers of sand, but there were too many. There was no scream, but when the lightning stopped striking, Minato's stomach dropped. For a second time in the past few days, seemed to freeze. He glimpsed Thalia, her spear running a monster through, shield blocking a strike from another. Something was wrong, yet Minato could not place what before everything returned back to normal speed. What he could see of Thalia was covered as monsters blocked his view, some letting of howls that sounded somewhat victorious. But her chakra disappeared.

"THALIA!" Minato screamed being unable to stop himself thanks to the impulses he had as a six-year-old, "NO!"

Luke's arms loosened slightly in shock and Minato slid out of his grip before the elder boy could stop him. Reaching into his kunai pouch on his leg as he moved, the blonde grabbed the sealing scroll he kept there that was full of his Hiraishin no Jutsu kunais. Biting the thumb of his free hand hard enough to draw blood, Minato swiped it on the seal on the inside of the scroll when he unrolled it with a simple jerk of his wrist. With a poof of smoke, about twenty of his special kunais appeared.

As fast as he possibly could, the Yellow Flash started throwing them into the horde of monsters. When the kunai were at the top of their arcs, Minato dodged Luke's grab with ease, his bronze dagger in his hand. They played the game of catch Minato for all of ten seconds, which was more than enough time for the kunai to hit the ground.

Gathering his chakra, a hard glint in his eyes, the messy-haired boy dodged one of Luke's lunges and disappeared in a golden flash. He reappeared in the middle of the monsters, and killed the one that was unlucky enough to be directly in front of him at the time with a battle cry. He dodged an attack from another as he snatched the kunai from the ground, threw it up and over, swiped wildly at a hellhound's throat, and, in another flash, was gone before the monster was disintegrated. Then it was a blur.

He stabbed, slashed, and cut the monsters around him seemingly at random. It was the same pattern each time though. Use the Hiraishin to get there, pick up the kunai, throw it to another spot, kill a few monsters before they knew what hit them, and flash away before any could retaliate properly. The very one-sided battle was complete and utter chaos.

Even Minato could not make heads or tails of the situation as he cut down monster after monster. There was only this boiling rage in his gut that cleared his head to the point that he had no other thoughts but to kill the monsters. With each use of his jutsu the strain on his body got even worse even as his chakra kept getting lower and lower.

Eventually, there were only a few monsters left, the hilltop covered in monster dust that glinted dully in the sun. The Yellow Flash stood with his knees bent slightly, dagger held with the blade directed outwards in front of him as he watched the few dozen creatures run away. He was covered in monster blood that had spurted from the creatures' wounds before they exploded, as well as the dust, and was a gruesome sight to see. The only distinguishing colors being his two blue eyes set in a face covered in red and gold. His chest was heaving, his body ached, his face was hard and unreadable, and his chakra reserves were so low it was ridiculous.

He stood up straight, looking for Thalia. He could not recall seeing her while he was attacking, but knew he had not hurt her. Minato froze mid turn. Thalia lay unmoving on the ground, her spear on the ground beside her, shield dented but still on her arm. Checking, and then double-checking, the blonde could not feel her chakra at all.

Tears burned his eyes as his emotions got the better of him and they rolled down his cheeks leaving trails in the grime. Slowly walking over to her, he reached down and gently closed her eyes, moving her arms so they covered her stomach, her shield arm on top. Stepping back, Minato quickly said a short prayer in his native tongue. He jumped away when she started to change and was reshaped into a large pine tree.

Blinking a few times in astonishment, he shook his head, a small smile gracing his face, and went to gather his kunai that were scattered everywhere, smile fading. Before he knew it, the job was done, and the kunai were resealed. His sharp ears suddenly picked up the clopping of hooves on the ground as something large and heavy made its way up the hill. Human footfalls thudded after whatever it was with hooves at a quicker rate, metal armor clanking. Getting his dagger ready once more, Minato turned to face the sound, completely ignoring his new friends shocked faces.

The torso of a man appeared over the hill, along with the rest of his body, which was the body of a white stallion. _A centaur,_ Minato noted from one of Thalia, Luke, and Grover's quick rundown on mythology. A bow and arrow were ready in his hands, the arrow notched for a quick fire. He stopped, staring at the scene in surprise, his eyes roving the hill, taking in the new tree that once was Thalia, until they stopped on Minato. His eyes widened when he took in the boy's appearance and his stance, probably seeing the exhaustion written all over him. Turning to Grover, he demanded, "Grover, what happened?"

"Chiron, h-he… M-M-Minato… H-H-H-He… Blah-ha-ha!" The satyr spluttered, unable to find his voice properly, and ended up bleating. His eyes had become like a goat's in his terror. Thankfully, Luke continued where Grover could not.

"S-Sir, Minato he…" he stopped, as people in armor came trooping up the hill with all kinds of different weapons in hand. Minato slowly slid out of his defensive stance while the armored people gazed at the hill with wide eyes, talking among themselves, but kept his dagger in hand just in case. The sandy-haired boy continued his sentence softly. "Minato, he just killed the monsters; a lot of them; alone."

"How many is a lot?" The centaur—Chiron—asked his eyes narrowing in Minato's direction slightly. The blonde responded by narrowing his own eyes, ever-so-slightly as he widened his stance, shifting his weight, trying to ignore the haze that was fogging his mind as the adrenaline rush from battle faded.

"A complete horde, sir, possibly, at least fifty, but I believe it was more." Luke told him, Annabeth glancing between Chiron, Grover, Minato, and Luke with wide gray eyes as she took in the conversation.

"Wh-What!?" Someone in armor stuttered, having overheard Luke's comment.

"But that's impossible! No one besides a god or goddess could defeat that many monsters and live to see another day! Not even a child of one of the Big Three!" Another yelled, causing the group to erupt into startled exclamations.

Chiron raised a hand and the talking ceased. "Who is Minato?"

Luke looked indecisive about pointing out the gore-covered child, but Annabeth had no such hesitations. She raised her arm and pointed to her fellow blonde with a hand, saying in as strong of a tone of voice she could which wavered only slightly, "He's right there, Mr. Chiron."

All eyes locked on Minato, and there were many startled gasps from the group. Apparently, they had not seen him seeing as he blended into his monster dust- and blood-splattered surroundings so well. Raising his chin some, the six-year-old tried not to show how much the fight had taken out of him. He offered a small, tired smile to Chiron, though, and his façade he wanted to put up slipped. The blonde opened his mouth to say hello but the words stuck in his throat when the arrow that Chiron had notched was pointed at him.

"What are you, Minato, and what is your reason for being here?" Chiron asked, the tip of his arrow not even moving a millimeter. All of Minato's thought processes felt like they shut down right then, and all he could do was gape stupidly at the centaur. The people in armor readied their weapons. "Answer me or you die where you stand."

The word die made the blonde's brain start to work again, but it was a little too late as the arrow was already flying through the air. Minato's body moved automatically, independently of his own will. He switched his dagger to his left hand before retrieving a three-prong-kunai from the pouch on his leg so fast his arms were a blur. The three-pronged kunai went flying towards Chiron's head on the opposite side that his friends were on, as Minato barely deflected the arrow out of the air from hitting him with the bronze weapon as he jumped to the side.

Another arrow was flying through the air, and the bronze tip zipped past a hairs-breath away from Minato's left shoulder. But the third was on him before he knew it and was in his shoulder. For a second the metal arrow just went right through him harmlessly, before it seemed as if he solidified once again, and searing pain jolted his shoulder. The momentum of the weapon made him stumble backwards with a loud cry of pain.

"Minato!" Annabeth yelled in worry.

Gritting his teeth in pain, Minato realized that all three of the arrows had been shot in the span of a few seconds, baffling the small blonde because not even the few ninjas that wielded bows could manage that. Letting his arm dangle uselessly at his side, still clutching his dagger—unwilling to loose his only weapon—he glared at the centaur, gathering up some of the remainder of his chakra into his right hand for a Rasengan. He used another piece of it to prepare for using Hiraishin one more time.

As Chiron leveled another arrow at Minato, a slightly confused glint in his eyes, the boy disappeared in a brilliant flash of yellow light, reappearing in an equally bright flash near centaur. A blue-green maelstrom of chakra in the rough shape of a sphere appeared in his right hand. Springing at Chiron as soon as his feet touched the ground, Minato yelled while the centaur started to turn in shock, "Rasengan!"

The full attack never even touched the side of Chiron's horse stomach as vines suddenly whipped out of the ground. The plants wrapped themselves around Minato's wrists, mid-section, and ankles, stopping his movement with the chakra tendrils that were escaping the sphere lashing out and burning the Chiron's flank. Chiron jumped away with a hiss of pain escaping his lips with an ugly red burn-like lash-mark marring the white.

As the Rasengan dissipated from his hand, the Yondaime was soon pressed into the grass with his right side to the ground, left wrist pinned to his side. He struggled to move but his restraints only tightened, and vines moved up his torso to the lower area of his chest. Soon it became harder to breathe as his breath was slowly squeezed out of him, making him stop struggling so he could get his breath back.

"I didn't think you were that stupid, Namikaze," a lazy, slightly familiar, voice said, and the bound blonde turned his head as much as he could towards the voice. The speaker was a rather plump man in a loud, tiger print shirt; silver can in one hand. "I thought all shinobi were told to never attack an ally?"

"He attacked me first, sir, and I had no idea that he was an alley!" Minato protested, not really paying attention to the fact that he had talked in his native tongue.

A few of the people looked at him oddly then they gawked openly when the man responded with, "Wrong language, Brat."

"Oops…" Minato said, then blurted in English, "And my name is not brat, sir! It's Minato Namikaze! I would appreciate it if you took the time to remember it."

"Oh, I know your name, but I don't care."

"Whatever… Can you let me up please, sir?" Minato said, pouting slightly.

"Fine," the man sighed. He took a swig from his can, and with a lazy flick of his hand the vines retreated back into the ground. "And call me Mr. D, but I appreciate the sir treatment."

"Thank you, Mr. D-sama." Minato said, slowly getting himself into a sitting position as Annabeth descended upon him, fretting over the arrow firmly lodged in his shoulder. Surprisingly, he was not bleeding all that much, but the shaft stuck out of his shoulder. There was no entry wound.

"Are you—oh, my gods!" Annabeth said, looking at the wound. With shaking fingers she gently touched the inflamed skin through the hole in the torn fabric of his shirt. Minato gasped as the arrow shifted slightly in his body. Quickly, she jerked her hand away, gray eyes wide, and whispered, "There's no entry point."

Grover heard this and he dropped down beside the blonde girl with a loud, "What?"

"There's no entry point…" The girl repeated again, slightly louder as if she was trying to prove what she was seeing by saying it again. Chiron was staring now in horror, realization dawning in his eyes about something. "There's no entry point, Grover. It's like the shaft of the arrow just sprouted out of his shoulder."

"But that's impossible, Annabeth," Luke said, crouching down as well. The older boy reached out as if to grab the shaft.

Fear settling into his stomach, Minato scrambled away from the boy and his arm as quick as he could, crying out a loud, "No, Luke, don't!"

Too late as the preteen's hand wrapped around the shaft, and the arrow-tip shifted inside of him. Minato yelled, pain lancing through his shoulder, chest, and arm as his body tensed. The skin around the shaft tore, letting blood come open from the wound. Luke quickly let go with his eyes wide and full of horror.

"Does anyone have something that can heal him?" Annabeth called, her eyes starting to glisten, threatening tears.

"I have some ambrosia!" A girl in armor ran over, pulling out a baggy full of what looked like some kind of sweet. When she saw the wound, her eyes widened and she called out, "Hey, someone from the Apollo cabin get your butt over here!" A teen ran over, there was a bow in the quiver slung over one of his shoulders. The girl gestured at Minato. "What can we do to help him?"

"First get the arrow out, of course, then a little nectar and ambrosia should fix him right up after it's bandaged." The teen said, brown eyes looking at the wound carefully. "We could get him to walk to the Big House, but he looks as if he's about to drop, and if we try to carry him we chance jostling him and further wounding him internally. We'll have to perform a quick field treatment in order to get him healed in time or he might bleed out."

"So we'll do what now?" The girl asked.

"We'll help him out here, and then take him to the Big House." The teen sighed, getting a nod from the girl. "We need three people over here now! Who has a medical kit?"

"I have a medical kit. I always have one for emergencies. It was a gift from someone I know because I can be accident-prone sometimes." Minato gritted out, reaching into the kunai pouch on his waist, pulling out another scroll. Ignoring the teen's incredulous look, the blonde swiped his thumb in the blood from his shoulder wound and drug it across the seal inked onto the inside of the scroll. In a puff of smoke a white kit with a red cross on it appeared.

The teen stared at the kit for a second while three others came over. He snapped out of it and ordered, "Kid, lay down. You four, hold his arms and legs down." The others quickly did as instructed, while the teen opened the kit, getting out a few rolls of gauze. He stuck one in Minato's mouth before the blonde could protest. "So you don't bit you're tongue off."

"Annabeth, come one. You don't need to see this," Luke said gently, pulling Annabeth away. "Grover, help me out here so she doesn't see."

Minato noted that the satyr followed the sandy-haired boy with a single, pitying glance back at the boy on the ground. "Okay, Luke."

The teen who was taking charge of Minato's field treatment used the canteen of water that was in the kit to wet a rag and cleaned the grime from monsters that had gotten near the six-year-old's wound. He looked at Minato with serious brown eyes. "You ready, kid?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Minato said the best he could around the rag, nodding as well so if the teen couldn't understand.

"Fine, then. Prepare yourself," he said, averting his eyes. "Get the ambrosia at the ready."

The next thing Minato knew was pain. His limbs thrashed as he threw his head back, back arching, a scream tearing its way out of his throat as his teeth snapped together on the gauze. He was vaguely aware of someone over him through the haze of pain, ripping the roll of gauze out of his mouth and trying to force something down his throat.

"I wouldn't give him that if I were you." Came the warning voice of Mr. D through the haze.

"Let me do it!" A voice snapped, shoving the figure over him out of the way. Hands wrenched his jaws open, stuffing something in his mouth that turned gooey. Fingers stroked his throat, encouraging him to swallow.

But he did not. Minato was too buried in the pain he was experiencing to care about that. The fact that the fox was screaming in his head was not helping either.

"**Brat, do not swallow that! Whatever you do, do not swallow that! You can not ingest it! Spit it out right now or we both will die!"** The Kyuubi roared in his mind, fear actually in the biju's voice.

The fact that the fox was scared made Minato shove whomever it was leaning over him out of his way with strength that was not portrayed by his small body and rolled over, spitting out the stuff his mouth. What came out of his mouth besides the goop made the six-year-old freeze: blood. Then the blonde felt the sores in his mouth, tasted the coppery and salty tang of blood, and immediately got sick, making the sores burn horribly.

Scrambling away from the pile of sick, the Yondaime stayed on all fours, trembling. Slowly, he looked at the wound in his shoulder and terror filled him. He was bleeding too much, from the amount of the blood-flow he would bleed out in a few minutes, not near enough time to get to a hospital.

"I told you not to give him the ambrosia," Mr. D sighed, starting to come over.

"B-But it shouldn't have hurt him!" Someone spluttered.

"Not him, he's a special case. If he hadn't spat it out the ambrosia would have killed him before the blood-loss did." Mr. D said.

Minato snapped out of his trance at the word 'killed'. Memories of some of Tsunade's medical lessons to Rin came to mind. Him having read the letters over his student's shoulder out of curiosity to see if he could figure out where the woman was to relay the information to the Sandaime** (#6)** and his sensei, but apparently she was sending everything via slug summons.

Vaguely he heard himself call something out and the palm of his right hand lit up with green chakra—the last of his chakra. He brought the hand over the wound, and imagined sending his chakra into himself and making the skin and muscle cells divide rapidly, healing the wound. Soon the hole in his skin closed and the muscle fibers stretched out, slowly regaining their normal shape as the dividing cells repaired the damage. He suspected that the fox had a hand in helping him heal as quickly as he did, but swayed when chakra exhaustion hit him, the train of thought leaving him.

Sitting back, Minato tried to focus on anything with his blurry vision, but nothing came into focus. Someone placed a hand on the smooth, unblemished skin were the wound had been, and the blonde saw a familiar face swim in front of him. He gave Annabeth a shaky smile before he crumpled into darkness.

**Author's Notes:**

These are the literal translations for anyone who does not know what the words and phrases are referring to.

**(#1) **Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō: Yellow Flash of the Leaf

**(#2) **Yondaime Hokage: Fourth Fire Shadow

**(#3) **Konohagakure no Sato: Village Hidden in the Leaves

**(#4) **Hiraishin no Jutsu: Flying Thunder God Technique

**(#5) **Rasengan: Spiraling sphere

**(#6) **Sandaime: Third—I'm referring to the third Hokage here

So… Did you like it or not? If so please review! I may just decide to continue it earlier than I thought. I just want to see how people react to it because I had the plot bunny and had to write it; sorry to my readers that are reading my other two stories as well as this one.


	2. Chapter 2: I'm Not a Demigod

**Scratch last chapter about the waiting until I finish Goku's Sister before continuing. I have already gotten so much positive feedback that I can't resist writing and posting Chapter 2. (Has anyone seen how many friggin' favorites and follows I have already gotten in over a month?!) I hope I do not disappoint those that are reading my story, though! And sorry that Minato is turning out to be OOC—as well as a few other characters—but it works with the story line. At least it's not as bad as some of the stories I have read a little of and completely stop reading in the middle of a chapter because a character I love is completely different for no reason at all besides the fact that the author wants him/her to be that way.**

**Disclaimer: I forgot this last chapter, but I do not own either, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or Naruto other than a few books!**

Chapter Two:

I'm Not a Demigod

Chiron stared at the boy thrashing in the bed in the infirmary, his horse half tucked away in his magic wheelchair. The blonde—easily cleaned of monster gore thanks to a snap of Dionysus' finger that also restored the boy's clothes to a presentable condition—looked so small in the bed that it was ridiculous. Another, equally small blonde girl, lay spread out at the foot of the bed, her feet dangling over the edge. A sandy-haired boy sat in a chair pulled up beside the bed, head resting on his folded arms on the bed; softly snoring as he slept as well—miraculously not getting hit by on of the younger boy's flailing limbs. Grover was clopping around in an odd little jig; dark circles around his eyes.

"You should sleep, Grover. You look dead on your f—hooves." Chiron chastised, barely avoiding a slip of his tongue. All the old centaur received in response was a bleat from the tense satyr who continued his nervous pacing. He sighed, and looked back at the blonde. His slightly angled yet pudgy face was scrunched up in what looked like pain or fear, forehead covered in a thin sheen of sweat making his bangs cling to his face. His forehead protector, coat, and weapon pouches were resting on the bedside table near the bed he lay in.

"No change in the brat I see…" A bored voice from the doorway drawled.

"No change, Dionysus, but what is he? He can't be mortal or the wards wouldn't have let him into the camp boundaries, nor would he have been hurt by Celestial Bronze, but he can't be a demigod or the ambrosia wouldn't have affected him the way it did." Chiron voiced, looking at the god still in a loud, tiger print shirt. A Diet Coke can was in one hand, glinting harshly in the florescent lights.

"You're right," Dionysus said, taking a swig from the can, looking at the boy with eyes that were unreadable. "He is not a demigod."

Grover stopped pacing, wide, goat-like eyes staring at the wine god. He sniffed the air tentatively, looking at Minato with a puzzled look. In an unsure manner, he said, "But he smells like a demigod, sir."

"He's not, though, Hades said he would have that scent due to the seal on him being reinforced with the power of a god. But I bet if you concentrate really hard then you'll smell his power on the boy seeing as he is the one to reinforce the seal." The god watched the satyr carefully as he started his pacing again. "I believe you have an idea as to what he is Chiron, seeing as you know of the Elemental Nations."

Chiron looked stunned, a cold weight settling in his stomach. "But that's impossible. No mortal can make it here unless…"

"They have the help of a god," Dionysus finished with a sigh. "It's very bothersome really. Especially since he has half of the Kyuubi—"

"What?!" Chiron exclaimed, his brown eyes wide.

"Yes, he has half of a bijou in him, that's why he has a seal and why Athena pressed for it to be strengthened before he was sent here so he could be watched over—I believe that she thought I would watch him closely because of my punishment. The only reasons that the camp's barriers let him in is because of the fact that he has an insane amount of chakra, and the trace of two gods' powers in his seal.

"That's also why he was hurt by Celestial Bronze; it thought he was a monster due to the demonic chakra in his system. But the metal got confused because it also believed he was a mortal, so that answers the question of the arrow having no entry wound. That odd technique he used—and the fox—are the only things that kept him from bleeding out even though I could have healed his would before then—if I felt up to it—, but I wanted to see how he would react." The wine god told the shocked centaur.

"But he's a boy!" Grover protested, not particularly caring what the Elemental Nations were at the moment. Surprisingly, the god laughed after shooting the satyr a condescending look.

"Physically, yes, but mentally he is at least thirty years of age," Dionysus said, making Grover splutter in surprise. "Shinigami decided to play a trick on the boy, and sent him here when the blonde idiot was ready to send his soul to purgatory and die in the physical plain."

The room became deathly quiet, and Chiron looked at the boy thrashing on the bed. He broke the silence by asking, "What's his name?"

"His name is Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure." Came the reply and Chiron's eyes grew wider. The centaur only felt shock.

"I attacked the Yellow Flash of Konoha." He said numbly, looking over at the wine god. This was about too much information for him to handle at one time.

"Yes, yes you did. I would consider yourself lucky that you are alive and that he is a child again. Otherwise, you would have been attack easily because he _wouldn't_ have been tired then."

-::- -::- -::-

_Minato found himself back in the Hokage office in Konoha. Hiruzen sat at the desk; the village was a wreck through the windows at the man's back. A small, blanketed bundle that lay on the desk was the center of the man's attention, though, instead of the village. The boy was about to call out when the Sandaime spoke softly._

"_Why, Minato…?" The elderly man's words were laced with grief, and Minato looked up at him. It was disorienting considering he had been slightly taller than the man only a few days ago, and had not had to crane his neck to look the man in the eyes for years. Sarutobi continued in the same grief laden manner, "I understand why, but, still, _why_, Minato?"_

_A familiar man suddenly burst into the room, the door slamming against the wall, making the windows rattle in their frames. He looked disheveled with almost unnoticeable black bags under his dark eyes. His long white hair was slightly tousled, and it seemed as if the red lines on his face were more prominent against skin that was paler than normal. Jiraiya was panting lightly, likely from having run for a great deal of time at an incredible speed._

"_I got here as fast as I could," the Toad Sanin said, then it seemed as if he noticed something more was off than just the grief from the dead that were still being gathered from the Kyuubi attack. Almost fearfully, the man asked, "Where's Minato, sensei?"_

_Sarutobi did not answer vocally, but minutely shook his head, his eyes closed. Jiraiya's breath caught for a second, his face deflating of emotion. Minato tried to say something only to find that it was as if someone had put a seal on him, making him unable to talk or make a single noise with his vocal chords._

"_What happened?" The white-haired man demanded shakily, still unable to process the fact that his last student was dead._

"_He sealed the Kyuubi into his son…" Hiruzen said, looking down at the babe on the desk._

_Jiraiya seemed to just appear by the child, looking down at him with wide eyes. As if to prove he was real he reached out to brush one of the infant's small hands with one of his large fingers. He drew his hand back with an indescribable look in his dark eyes._

"_But…" The Hokage continued uncertainly. The Sanin's attention became solely focused on his sensei, eyes gaining a small ray of hope. "But, after the sealing, he fell to the ground and his body disappeared."_

"_Wh-What?" Jiraiya stuttered; shock painted on his face. "He just disappeared?"_

"_Yes, into thin air." Sarutobi said, picking up Naruto into his arms and sitting down in the Hokage chair with the child._

"_But that's impossible!" Came the younger man's opposition loudly, but not loud enough to disturb the napping child._

"_But that's what happened, Jiraiya." Sarutobi looked at his former student. "I don't know how it happened, but it did."_

_That stopped the pervert from saying anything else, leaving the room in an awkward silence. Without even making a sound, Minato walked over to Sarutobi. Standing on his tiptoes to peer at the baby, he used the desk as a way to keep his balance better, and shifted a single paper slightly, catching the attention of the two ninja in the room for a second before it was dismissed. Noting their shift in attention in the back of his mind, Minato thought, _Naruto.

_The small blonde was sleeping, his whiskered face peaceful. Slowly, two blue eyes as bright as Minato's own opened. Blearily, they looked up at Sarutobi then shifted a little to lock an unfocused gaze on Minato. Giving a happy gurgle, Naruto smiled a toothless smile._

_The Yondaime could have sworn that his son, now only six years younger than he was, was looking directly at him. Yet he did not think that was possible, because Sarutobi and Jiraiya could not see him, or detect his presence aside from the slight movement of the paper; making him believe that right then he was something like an undead phantom—how that was possible he could not guess, but it was the most probable explanation he could come up with. To see if the tiny blonde could see him, Minato stepped to his right and unfocused eyes followed him, much to his surprise._

"_What seal did he use?" Jiraiya said, the sharpness in his voice betraying his slight anxiety._

"_Why don't you tell me… I have a guess, but I hope it is wrong." Sarutobi said, unwinding the blanket from around the babe, revealing a white diaper and a jet-black seal emblazoned on his stomach._

"_That's the Eight Trigrams Seal… So that means…" Jiraiya trailed off._

"_I was hoping I was wrong, but apparently I wasn't." Wrapping Naruto back up, Hiruzen placed him back on the desk where he stared at Jiraiya with big blue eyes._

"_Sensei, that still doesn't explain why Minato's body disappeared though." The white-haired man stated as Minato slowly reached out a hand to grab one of Naruto's hands gently. He was curious to see if he was able to touch Naruto. Small fingers wrapped around his larger index finger as he gingerly held his son's tiny, pudgy wrists. Another happy gurgle came from the smaller blonde, making the now six-year-old smile softly. A desire to get back to Konoha as quickly as he possibly could flared in his chest._

"_I know that but—" The Sandaime's reply was cut off by his own slight intake of breath. There was a period of silence in which Minato stared at the arm he had reached out to touch Naruto. It was not as transparent anymore, but more translucent. He blinked, semi-confused, and silently looked up at Sarutobi then Jiraiya, both of whom had shocked expressions on their faces. The blonde's eyebrows shot up, almost hiding entirely in his bangs._

"_M-Minato?" Jiraiya queried, as if not believing in what he was seeing. Deftly, Minato nodded in conformation. "But how?"_

_Opening his mouth to say something, nothing came out—much to the blonde's annoyance and the two adults' surprise when it looked like he was about to growl—, so, instead, Minato shrugged. Halfway through his shrug he stopped, eyebrows drawing together. Looking at Naruto's hand and his clasped together, he started to ponder over if that was the reason that they could see him._

"_What?" Sarutobi asked._

_Raising one finger on his free hand, Minato eyed the grip Naruto had on his finger. Reaching over, he gently pried open the baby's surprisingly strong grip from his hand, slipping his hand away. Immediately, he became transparent with Naruto making complaining noises. Letting the infant cling to his finger again, Minato became seeable again to the two adults. He glanced up at his sensei and the Sandaime with an expression he hoped said, "Well that's interesting."_

"_That's… peculiar…" Sandaime muttered; confusion about this whole exchange set on his face. Shaking his head, Minato looked at Hiruzen with a semi-hard look that betrayed his annoyance at the understatement about something that had some sense to it._

_From his sensei, he earned a half-hearted chuckle of, "Definitely Minato alright, but how is it not all that peculiar?"_

_Minato grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. He tried to give them a look that broadcasted for them to not freak out as he lifted the hem of his shirt, gripping it in his teeth so it would not fall back down. The blonde made a one-handed hand sign, channeling his chakra a small ring of chakra appearing around him, making him frown slightly at his control. Slowly, a black seal appeared on his stomach and Jiraiya sucked in a quick breath._

"_Damn it, Minato, really?" The white-haired man reached out to touch the seal to check and see what chakra was in it. He stopped a centimeter from the boy's stomach, looking at him for permission, only getting a shrug in response. His large hand reached the seal, and passed right through the skin as if it was not there, and he jerked his hand back quickly, but not before Minato could hiss in discomfort._

_Minato tried not to glare at his sensei, but that feeling of the man's hand going _through_ his stomach had been horrible. It had felt as if someone at stabbed him as well as tried to send ice into him while trying to burn him all at the same time. Plus, the stabbing feeling had been very uncomfortable, almost making him try and hit the pervert._

_Raising his hands up in defense at the blonde's withering glare, Jiraiya said, "Hey I didn't know that would happen. At least you made a sound. Can you say anything?" When he received a glare that said that if the boy could he would be saying some very strong words to his sensei, he said, "I guess not."_

"_So I'm guessing that you sealed half of the fox in yourself and the other half in Naruto, am I correct?" The Sandaime asked, receiving a small nod from the Yondaime. He sighed. "Minato…"_

_Minato tried to dredge up a small smile, but froze, tilting his head. When the office started to darken around him, the blonde almost panicked; almost, but not quite. The two men in the office had worried looks on their faces as he started to dissolve out of existence._

"_Minato, are you alive?" Jiraiya asked, slightly strained. Before the scene faded completely, Minato gave a huge nod. The last things he saw were the shocked faces of the two men staring down at him and Naruto's finger grasping on thin air. Then all the blonde boy knew was a repeating cycle of the hell from the Kyuubi attack…_

-::- -::- -::-

With an incomprehensible cry, Minato's eyes shot open as he jerked into a sitting position in the bed. For a second the world spun dizzily, then the pain hit him and he fell back on the bed with another cry—this one full of pain—, writhing. It felt as if his insides and muscles had been torn apart and rearranged then put back in their proper places multiple times like some insanely painful puzzle. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the pain receded some, and the blonde lay there panting, curled on his side with his arms wrapped around his midsection, knees in his face.

"Minato!" A young, slightly feminine voice cried from what seemed like far away in the boy's pain delirious state. "Minato, what's wrong?"

"Hurts…" He whimpered in-between his gasps.

"What hurts?" Another voice, this one distinctly male, asked with concern from the same distance as the other voice.

"Everything…" He tried to tell them, but a spike of pain lanced through his entire body, making his whole body start shake uncontrollably. His body curled in on itself even tighter as a scream tore itself out of his lips. A small, cool hand somehow managed to slip in to rest on his forehead, and was gone as quickly as it had come.

"He's burning up!" The feminine voice wailed, breaking slightly as if the owner was crying—Annabeth he recognized.

"Grover, get either some people from the Apollo cabin up here or get Mr. D. Now!" The male voice ordered. The sound of something hard hitting the floor echoed in Minato's head as someone ran out of the room.

"What could have done this, Chiron?" A younger male voice asked—Luke.

"I don't know, Luke." Came the older voice's reply.

"Hiraishin…" Minato coughed in explanation, something wet splattering his lips. A metallic smell invaded his senses telling him of blood. Another cough wracked his small frame as he continued to tremble, gasping for air. "Too young…"

"**Damn it, Yondaime!" **The Kyuubi grumbled, sending his chakra into the boy to repair the damage that the blonde had caused himself. **"You are stupid! If it weren't for the fact that I would die if you died I would just **_**let**_** you die!"**

Minato hissed in discomfort, his heart racing as the bijou's chakra coursed through his undeveloped, already stressed to their max, six-year-old chakra coils. There was a gasp and the sound of someone scrambling away from him. Slowly, the pain started to disappear, and the blonde stopped trembling. He uncoiled slowly as the healing took effect on his muscles. Soon there was only a faint stab of pain remaining, like an echo of the real thing.

"**That's as much as I can heal you without killing you thanks to your pathetic chakra pathways. You'll have to heal the rest of the way yourself, naturally." **The fox ordered the barely conscious boy. **"And until you are older do **_**not**_** use the Hiraishin or the Rasengan again! They put too much strain on your chakra coils right now and I really don't want to die because of a stupid container…"**

_Hai, Kyuubi… _Minato thought, slowly drifting off into the blanket of unconsciousness with the concerned voices of Chiron, Luke, and Annabeth drifting away in the blackness.

-::- -::- -::-

Slowly, Minato became aware of his surroundings again. His foggy mind registered the fact that his body was extremely stiff as if he had been lying still for a few days, two at most. But he was also sore as if he had been through a vigorous workout. There was a slightly too clean smell hanging in the air that he associated with hospitals that made him groan internally. With an aching slowness, he cracked his eyes open to snap them shut again at the influx of light that was shining directly on his face.

_That's a stupid place to have a window in reference to a bed, _the blonde thought angrily. Once more he cracked his eyes open; squinting them almost shut as his eyes adjusted to the bright rays of sunlight. The room he was in was slightly Spartan, and only had one other bed that was empty when Minato looked. Resting on the stand beside his bed was his belongings and a jug of water along with an upturned glass.

The sight of the water made him realize just how parched he was. Yet trying to sit up proved to be nonexistent when his body blatantly screamed that it was not going to listen to him because of the spiking pain is caused a great deal of his muscles. Calling out was no better seeing as his throat just did not seem to want to form the words he wanted in anything louder than an incomprehensible croak. Sighing, he resolved to just wait for someone to enter the room. Thankfully he did not have to wait long as a familiar, fellow blonde girl walked in followed by an older, sandy-haired boy.

The girl froze; then launched herself at the bed with a brilliant smile and a cry of, "Minato!"

Annabeth squeezed the air out of him, and made his body scream in protest at the treatment. He gave a weak whimper that made the girl let go immediately with a worried look in her gray eyes. Luke laughed; his relief evident.

"I see you're awake after your two-day sleep, Sleeping Beauty." The pre-teen said, sitting down at the foot of Minato's bed as the blonde gapped at him. "You should see you face, and no, I'm not your Prince Charming."

"I thought… I though you… Like Thalia…" Annabeth said brokenly, looking as if she were about to burst into tears. Minato attempted to give her an awkward hug in comfort, but his arm did not want to move all that much, so he patted her knee instead.

"Not going to say anything, squirt?" Luke asked, tilting his head, a mischievous look in his smile. Minato gave the pitcher of water an extremely longing look, and the sandy-haired boy thankfully caught his meaning. "Or you just need water. That's understandable."

Quickly, half of the glass was filled and somehow Minato painfully squirmed into a sitting position, leaning against the pillow Annabeth propped up behind him. With shaking hands, the boy took the glass from Luke and greedily guzzled the water down, presenting the glass for a refill. After three more half-glass refills—and being reprimanded by Annabeth for drinking the water too fast—, Minato was content and croaked, "Thanks."

"No prob. Now what was that that you did to defeat the horde?" Luke said, placing the pitcher on the table, both him and Annabeth looking at the six-year-old expectantly. Minato sighed heavily. He knew that he would have this question asked to him, but, in truth, he did not want to answer it, yet he did not want to lie to his new friends.

"Well…" He began, and closed his eyes, bracing himself. "I used skills that were taught to me by a teacher that is far, far, far away from here. And before you ask, no, I can't teach you. One, you are too young, and two, it is something that you can't learn more than, because I, unlike you… I'm not a demigod, I'm a mortal."

There was a moment of silence before Luke guffawed. "Do you expect us to really believe that? Only a demigod can enter the camp without permission!" Minato only gave him a hard look that stopped his laughing, leaving only a shocked look on the elder boy's face. "You're not joking, are you?"

"No, I'm not. In truth I would love to tell you the true reason that I was able to enter camp and smell like a demigod, but that is information that I can not divulge to you." The blonde closed his eyes, tilting his head down so he could not see the looks on his friends' faces. His small hands balled into fists on the sheets and thin blanket of the bed. "I'm sorry."

"Are you done with your partial explanation, Namikaze?" A voice came from the doorway.

Not looking up or opening his eyes, but unnoticeably sniffing the air and smelling the dizzying scent of wine, Minato said, "Hello, Mr. D-sama. How are you today?"

"Fine, fine. You're not going to visit my uncle soon I suppose then?" Dionysus asked like it was a casual, everyday question. Minato opened his eyes and looked up at the god with wide, confused blue eyes.

"You mean Hades-sama, Mr. D-sama?" The blonde asked as Annabeth gaped at him for some reason.

"Yes, yes. Since this is over with and you're awake, I'll let Chiron come in here and talk to you. And, Namikaze." The god said, turning to head back out of the door, light sparkling off of the silver can in his hand. "Don't try and kill him. I understand he _is_ an ass but that's only half of him."

"Hai, will do, Mr. D-sama." Minato said, face breaking out into a smile as he found the comment humorous in a way.

"And quit with the 'sama' crap."

"Yes, sir!" The Yondaime managed a joking, two-fingered salute, his muscles screaming at him, while he did not bother to hide his soft chuckles. All the blonde received in response was a tired sigh and a flicked finger that made Minato's jaw suddenly snap shut with an audible sound. Frantically, as the god left, the boy tried to pry his jaw back open with his fingers, eyes wide. Luke face-palmed with a loud, exaggerated sigh. He did not notice when a man rolled into the room in a wheelchair.

"Um…" Chiron said, taking in the scene before him with uncertain brown eyes that were suddenly locked with intelligent blue eyes as Minato, who was still attempting to open his mouth so he could talk, looked at him. "What's wrong."

"Mr. D made Minato's mouth snap shut so he couldn't talk," Annabeth explained, looking back and forth from Chiron and Minato as the fellow blonde started to give the centaur a penetrating glare.

Chiron sighed, shaking his head, exasperated. "It'll wear off soon enough."

"So what was it you came here to talk about?" Luke asked.

"Actually, I need to talk to Minato, Luke." Said the centaur gently.

Finally getting his mouth open, Minato said, loosing his glare, "About me being a jinchuuriki, Chiron?"

"Exactly."

"What's a jinchuuriki?" Annabeth asked curiously, gray eyes flickering back and forth between the two males. Luke raised an eyebrow at the peculiar word.

"It's what I am, Annabeth. I'm pretty sure it's what let me into the camp even though I am not a demigod." The six-year-old explained to the slightly elder blonde, keeping his explanation true, yet vague enough that the whole truth was not there.

"Oh…" She murmured, interest showing in her eyes.

"But I really would like to talk to him in private," Chiron stated gently, the forced sense of calm in his voice made Minato's shinobi senses go on red-alert.

"Well, let's go then Annabeth," Luke grumbled, forcing a twitch of the lips to try and pass for a smile that turned out more like a grimace. He herded the protesting girl out of the room, barely preventing the door from slamming shut in his annoyance. There was silence in the room as the two's footsteps faded down the hall.

Chiron spoke first, "Which one?"

"The Kyuubi no Yoko," Minato replied, his hands clenching and unclenching on the blankets as the centaur sighed. "But I guessed you already knew that from your reaction. What are you going to do with me?"

"I don't know. What do _you_ want to do?" Chiron said, looking at the boy who stared back at him with eyes that were determined.

"Go home to Konoha, but that's not possible seeing as what Hades-sama said about a conflict with the gods. I'm guessing that he means the gods here and the gods there. But if that's true, the question is, how did I get here?" The boy had looked away as he talked and was gazing at the patch of blue sky through the window.

"A good question, but only the god that sent you here could tell you that. And you are correct when you say that you cannot go home, at least not right now. And…" Chiron paused, and Minato snapped his attention to the centaur. "And since you can't go home yet, the gods have decided to let you train as a demigod even though you are not one."

Minato blinked in shock. "Really?"

"Yes. Seeing as you smell like a demigod thanks to your tenant, you need to be trained. You're luck with that horde was only temporary because that technique you used apparently was not good for your health from that odd attack you had earlier." The blonde looked down, the pain fresh in his mind from the stress that the Hiraishin had caused on his body and chakra coils. "So you need to learn different ways to defend yourself with that knife of yours."

"Dagger." Minato corrected. "Not like it really matters, but it's a dagger."

"You still need to train to fight." Chiron said, then added, "Our way, not the way ninja way."

-::- -::- -::-

It took Minato another two days before he was able to get up and walk freely around again with permission from someone in the Apollo cabin, although he had felt fine after a full day in bed and a full night of fitful rest. He stood on the porch to the Big House—barely using his single crutch for balance, let alone using it for putting any weight on it—in the regular camper wear of an orange shirt and blue-jean shorts. His ninja apparel was currently in the wash seeing as it was laundry day and they needed to be cleaned despite Mr. D's restoration. The kunai pouches were still on him though, and Minato was not willing to part with them and the weapons they allowed him to carry on his person.

The strawberry fields stretched out before him, along with a lake, an arena, and a couple cabins arranged into a U-shape around a fire tended by a small figure. There was an outdoor pavilion for eating and some woods that gave Minato the slight feel of the Forest of Death, but not as terrifying. The blonde even saw a stable with winged horses trotting around with people either leading them or riding them. A rush of information reached Minato's senses, almost overwhelming him before he narrowed his focus back down to a normal human's—a trick he had learned while lying around in bed as a way to occupy his time. Scowling, he thought, _I need to work on that too…_

"Minato!" Grover called, trotting up with Annabeth following him. There were a few smoking holes in their orange camp half-blood shirts and soot was smudged on Annabeth's face. "You're up!"

"Yes, Grover, I'm up, and being up is better than sitting in bed all day." Minato replied ignoring the satyr's sheepish grin. The blonde smiled to his two friends. "But it's good to see you two. What have you been up to while I've been trapped inside?"

"I've been helping Annabeth get aquatinted with the camp." Grover explained.

"Well, then what about me? I believe I need to learn my way around." The Yondaime commented, stepping off the porch with ease. Annabeth reached out to help him when he dropped the crutch, but when he gave a few experimental jumps she drew back. Giving the two a large smile despite their shocked faces, Minato suggested, "How about show me the cabins first?"

"Sure…" Grover murmured, Minato walking right past him, head of spiky blonde hair held high.

"Are you coming?" He asked over his shoulder, trying not to laugh at the shock still evident on their countenances. Grover blinked, snapping out of his daze, and hurried to catch up, dragging an unwilling Annabeth along.

"Each cabin is for the twelve Olympians. There is not one for Hades though, just like there is not a throne on Olympus for him either." The curly-haired satyr explained as the trio made their way to the cabins. The boy frown at the unfairness that was thrown Hades' way, but made no comment. While they were walking, though, Minato noticed that campers were bringing attention to him and staring, some even pointing.

"Erm… Grover, why are people staring?" The blonde asked. He was used to the presence of eyes trained on him from being Hokage as well as a legendary war hero, but this was different. Back in Konoha people _knew_ he was powerful, but here it seemed as if they were sizing him up instead.

"You're quite famous. You can't eat ambrosia, defeated a horde of monsters, and yet you made your way into the barriers around the camp." Annabeth explained instead, gray eyes trained on the fellow blonde in a slightly accusing manner that made the boy nervous. That look reminded him too much of Kushina for comfort.

"Great. That means I've become a target…" Minato grumbled to himself under his breath, a hand drifting towards his kunai pouch instinctively as he started to grow uneasy under all the looks. He barely took notice of the fact that they had already made it into the area between the cabins and were walking towards a slightly weathered looking one.

"This is where you will be staying, Minato." Grover explained, snapping the boy out of his paranoid state of looking around at all the campers as if he expected an attack at any moment. "Luke is here too because this is his father's cabin as well as the cabin for unclaimed demigods. You're staying here because the Hermes cabin also takes in all the guests too."

"Where's Annabeth staying though?" The boy asked, looking at the girl.

"The Athena cabin." She told him flatly.

"Oh…" The image of a woman with dark hair and intelligent gray eyes popped into Minato's head, and he said, not really thinking, "You have her gray eyes."

"What?" Annabeth queried, her eyes were extremely wide in a mixture of shock and surprise.

"Well…" Minato began to say, but was thankfully cut off from his awkward explanation when he jumped out of the way of a person that barreled out of the cabin with someone yelling in shock and anger. A furious looking teenaged girl stormed out after the boy, a black mustache inked on her face.

"Get back here, Shorty!" She yelled after the boy that had shot out of the cabin. A knife was in her hand, and it went sailing through the air in a golden arc. The boy looked over his shoulder, yelped, and ducked, the blade missing him by a hair. He continued to run while the teenager chased after him, yelling at him in a language that Minato did not understand.

"Hermes is also the god of pranks," Grover explained when Minato shot him a confused look. The blonde boy groaned in exasperation. He had had enough pranks to last a lifetime thanks to Kushina.

"Can we go somewhere where I _don't_ have the chance of getting skewered by a knife, sword, or some other kind of extremely dangerous and pointy weapon thrown by an enraged person?" The Hokage asked, hoping that he would received a yes as an answer.

-::- -::- -::-

Grover and Annabeth had continued to show Minato around until something was blown off in the distance when the sun was low in the sky. Apparently, it signaled dinner and the blonde Hokage was drug off to the large pavilion by a very hungry satyr and blonde demigod. Thus, Minato found himself standing awkwardly in front of the main table with Chiron—in centaur form—towering over him while campers pointed at him. He could also pick up their interested whispers with his super human hearing.

"He's the boy that killed the horde of monsters."

"How could he do that? He's tiny and looks no more than four!"

"I wonder who his godly parent is."

"I hope he's in my cabin, he'd be a great ally in capture the flag."

"Thinking back on it, what were those weird moves he was using? I've never seen anything like them."

"What's his name again?"

"Quite!" Chiron called and a death-like silence filled the air. All eyes were locked on the centaur with a few shifting to the short blonde a few times. "We all know that we have gotten three new campers. Two have already been claimed and put into the correct cabin according to their godly parent, but one has been in the infirmary due to injuries and exhaustion. I am pleased to introduce Minato Namikaze."

There were a few claps, but all eyes were locked on Minato in curiosity. Politely, Minato bowed, but his shinobi senses suddenly went off and he jerked to the side, avoiding a throwing knife that had been chucked his way. Grabbing it out of the air and barely avoiding cutting off his fingers by misjudging the length of his reach and the speed of his arm, the blonde looked out at the crowd. Following the gazes that were slowly turning to face a table full of people that looked like they thirsted for battle in the way there eyes glinted in a slightly dangerous way, a boy shrugged.

"What? I wanted to see if he was as good as he was made out to be." He said, uncrossing his arms, raising an eyebrow.

The way he held himself reminded Minato of Aries and looking at the others at the table he concluded the same thing about. Inspecting the throwing knife in his hand, he noticed a small boar head carved crudely at the base of the blade before the hilt. Flicking his eyes back to the boy at the table, Minato made calculations at how much force he needed to throw it so it pinned the sleeve of his coat to the table, and how many spins would be possible before the blade veered off course. Shrugging off the idea of the spinning blade, Minato took aim, and carefully threw the blade through the air with incredible force for a six-year-old as he applied a miniscule amount of wind chakra to the blade after slowly gathering it so it could embed itself into the stone table. The knife gained a slightly blue-green hue as it sliced through the air to find its mark.

The unnamed boy yelped in shock, staring at the weapon embedded roughly an inch into the table a centimeter from his arm. He gave an experimental tug to see if he could free his sleeve that way without tearing his coat, but the slightly sound of ripping fabric sounded in the quiet air. A girl at the table gave the knife a hard pull to dislodge it; it stayed firmly in the table, not budging.

Shifting out of his throwing position, the Minato calmly walked over to the table silently. The surrounding people stared after him, and some had their mouths agape in surprise. Standing halfway behind the elder boy and to the right, the blonde asked, "Want me to get that?"

"Heh, what could you do, Puny?" The girl that had tried to retrieve the knife earlier scoffed.

"Just let me try," he said simply and the boy sitting next to boy with his arm pinned to the table stood up. Nodding in thanks, Minato got on the bench then the table, carefully avoiding stepping on the plates or cups. He bent over and grabbed the hilt of the knife, slowly channeling a little chakra into the blade and his muscles to make it easier for him to dislodge it. Giving the disbelieving girl a wide, flat smile, the blonde pulled hard on the knife which came free easily. Twirling the blade and presenting it hilt-first to the blinking boy who had thrown it, Minato said, "I believe this is yours."

"Yeah…" He replied and cautiously took the blade back.

Springing off the table and flipping for extra show, Minato landed gracefully on the floor in a crouch. Straightening up, he started to walk back up to the front where Chiron was standing with an exasperated look on his countenance, and paused. Over his shoulder, the Yondiame Hokage stated, before continuing walking, "And I would advise you to not try that again. I may be small and trying to adjust, but I am not innocent; far from it actually. Plus, if you do that again, when I throw it again my aim may not be as good." There was an audible gulp from the boy, confirming the fact that he understood what Minato meant.

_I absolutely hate being six again._ Minato thought as he walked to rejoin Chiron. _It is making me do things on an emotion rather than logically thinking things through fully before acting. Ugh… It's like being Kushina. Knowing you shouldn't dive head-on into things and yet you still do and think up strategies on the fly. I really hope Naruto will not become like that. Then again it may be a Kyuubi jinchuuriki thing… Wait, I'm a jinchuuriki now… This is confusing. And Mito-sama was rational…_

A sudden chill in the air made him freeze, while the campers started to reach for their weapons always on their person. Softly, a chilly breeze tousled everyone's clothes and hair before it became a brisk wind that froze Minato to the core. The evening light seemed to dim, and the fires in the bronze braziers flickered, shrinking to merely the size of a candle flame—some of the fires extinguished all together. In the gloom, the small blonde could easily see the bright orange shirts of the others; some of the campers' faces were even illuminated in golden light from their drawn blades.

Slowly, he reached for his own dagger, withdrew it from his weapons pouch, and brandished it in front of him in a reverse grip. Under his fingers the leather gave a slight, almost unnoticeable, squeak of complaint at his tight grip. Slipping into a defensive stance, Minato swiveled his head to look around him. The clacking of beads from behind him made the Yondaime whirl around while a girl let out a surprised cry that bordered on a scream.

"Shinigami…" Minato murmured in surprise, and a cruel grin curled the god's lips around the sword in his mouth. The boy's hand dropped to his side as he tilted his head up to look the death god in his empty eyes. Whispers erupted throughout the pavilion, carrying easily through the silence.

The two stared at each other for a time, the air slowly growing colder, before an extreme amount of pain flared through Minato's stomach suddenly. His dagger clattered to the stone as it slid out of his grip. Clutching at his stomach, the blonde gave a gasping hiss of discomfort as suddenly the fox's chakra surged through his partially healed chakra pathways. He found himself on his knees, a soft, yet eerie, haze of red flaring around him as the chakra built up and escaped through his tenketsu. Cracking open a single, now-red, cat-like eye, Minato painfully looked up at the god.

Shinigami took an arm covered in indistinguishable black markings and brought it closer to the blonde, flexing a hand so it was palm facing the Yondaime. Minato's body was forced to it's feet against his will, his arms were splayed to the side, face screwed up in pain as the red haze started to condense into a bubbling, red cloak with two abnormally long extensions that looked like ears and a tail. Both eyes wide open; the six-year-old struggled against his invisible bonds, but could only move his head slightly as the god's hand was splayed above his stomach. Everyone watched in horror as the being thrust his translucent arm through Minato's mid-section, and the boy screamed, unable to even attempt to contain it. The air instantly came alive with a thrumming power.

Suddenly, the campers burst into action. One girl sprang to her feet, with a bow in her hands and let loose an arrow that met resistance against thin air. Another camper got up and swung a sword at the air where the arrow had seemingly ricocheted off nothing and the sword bounce back with a hollow ringing coming from the bronze. No one else tried again after the second failure, and could only watch what was happening even as Dionysus strode to the area with a loud sigh.

The red surrounding Minato continued to bubble and grow brighter, lighting up the pavilion in sickly, crimson light. With out warning the blonde slumped on the ghostly arm, breathing heavily. Minato felt his mouth move with out him trying to say anything, and a deep voice that was not his own, and grated at his vocal chords, growled out in the tongue native to the shinobi nations, "What do you want, Shinigami?"

"You to give the Hokage a chance…" A whisper-like sound seemed to hiss through the area on the wind, and chilled the campers to their bones even though they could not understand the words that were being said.

"Why should I give this bastard a chance? He ripped me apart and sealed half on me in his gut and the other half into his own son! Moreover, why should I?" Came the gruff reply, accompanied with the baring of fangs as Minato's face twisted into a snarl.

"Because it is not my wish… I am only a messenger…" Shinigami's ghostly voice paused then continued. "Kurama…"

The blonde's face went slack in shock, before a smirk graced his features. "So it's _him_ that wants me to give this weakling a chance. Tell him I will, but only for old times sake because it's _him_." Kyuubi responded, shaking his container's head. "Does he expect me to give the mini-Yondaime a chance as well?"

"Yes…" Shinigami slowly started to pull his hand out of the blonde's stomach. "And he said not to disappoint…"

"Heh…" He huffed as his control over Minato slipped and with bleary red eyes the blonde, now back in control, peered up at Shinigami.

"Minato… I gave you a second chance because I deemed you worthy enough… do not abuse the privilege and disappoint me…" The god said, fully bring back his arm, and vanished. The thrumming in the air disappeared along with the god.

Minato crumpled to the stone floor in a heap, barely conscious. As the darkness disappeared, his red eyes faded back to blue, but the pupils stayed vertical and cat-like. The warmth from the dying rays of the sun were a welcome change to the blonde as pair of shoes appeared in his line of sight.

"That was enlightening…" Dionysus said, his large figure looming over the boy.

"Wh-What just happened? I… I can't remember more than Shinigami and pain…" Minato croaked in English, eyes drooping as a exhaustion that seemed bone-deep made him feel slightly cold despite the summer heat.

"Nothing important, Minato." The wine god said after a pause, placing a finger on the boy's forehead as he turned over to look at the god. Immediately, the blonde started to drift off and before he sunk into darkness he heard a soft, almost sarcastic, murmured from Mr. D. "Nothing important at all."

-::- -::- -::-

Kyuubi, also know as Kurama to a select few, stared at the inside bars of his cage, pondering. Why would _he_ want him, the mightiest of all nine of the bijou to give either of the sniveling brats he was sealed inside a chance. There was rationality to the mini-Yondaime, but for the real one… Kurama's lips pulled back into a snarl of disgust.

"**I have no idea what game you are playing, but I'll agree with you for once…"** The kitsune growled to himself. Sitting up from lying on the cool, white stone with yellow and red lines curving streaks through it. While it was not all that comfortable, Kurama liked it a great deal better than with Kushina where he had been strapped down with chains and stakes. Peering down at the small, blonde figure splayed on the stone on the other side of the bars, he scoffed. **"Give him a chance indeed. But I will enjoy seeing how his life plays out here and all the chaos that will ensue… Not to mention I'll get a chance to 'play' when some other power messes with the seal before Hades reinforces it again… At least I won't get bored with two containers."** He sighed heavily, seeing the many headaches that would cause. **"Twice the fun…"**

**Author's Notes:** Hopefully, not a very confusing chapter, but it is a filler one, big time. Sorry about that, but I needed a filler. And this is probably the last pre-Lightning Thief chapter because I really needed something to kick the story off. If you have any questions, hit me up with a private message, and if you're a guest leave a question in a review. I will—if I don't forget—answer the review questions made by guests. Also for those that don't like my OOC moments, sorry, but it fits.


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